I’m having a ton of issues with getting the laser to cut anything reliably. It struggles to cut 2.8mm corrugated cardboard, even at 30mm/min speed, 100% Power and three passes. I’ve done it with 0 drop as in the recommend settings, and also a 1mm drop between passes. Neither of those settings cut completely through the cardboard, and there is so much soot that it stains the material.
I found the test card nc file in another post and ran that. You can see at 100% power and 50mm/min it doesn’t cut completely through.
What else should I be looking at? I’m really starting to think the laser is either messed up or its just useless as a cutting device. If it can only cut paper or cardstock, then I have another machine that will do that in about 1/20th the time the Snapmaker takes.
Any help would be hugely appreciated. THANK YOU!
1 Like
I would guess your laser is out of focus.
Take note of what Snap maker says your laser height is currently, use my focus files, then compare the difference.
Here are my focus files I use. Once again on cardstock.
** Make sure there is at least 4mm of clearance between your laser len’s hood and the surface of your object. (otherwise you will crash your laser into the bed.)
Test 1-Corse Focus Speed100.nc (92.3 KB)
This first test should get you within 1.0mm of focus.
This second set should help you get within 0.2mm
Test 2-Fine Focus Speed 800.nc (64.9 KB)
Test 2.5-Fine Focus Speed 800.nc (116.1 KB)
My 2nd guess, is your laser lens might be dirty.
Let us know if there is an improvement.
2 Likes
Here are the two tests I ran today on 6mm cardboard.
This first one you’ll notice I have a much fuller grid expanding to the right, almost a full box at S3000/P100%
The second one is testing # of passes and depth per pass vs speed.
All the red squares are clean cut through.
Once again this is 6mm cardboard.
So yes, the 1600mw SM2.0 laser can cut through thicker cardboard.
** Edit. my test cardboards are not perfectly flat either. they are misshaped, and the top right corner is not held down, so the whole area is bowing up.
1 Like
Thank you Rusty, I’ll definitely check focus again. Even though the beam at 1% power is pinpoint, calibration keeps failing, the camera doesn’t seem to work, so I’m eyeballing it. Thanks for the focus test files, hopefully that will get me a focus workaround and cutting nicely.
On a side note, I did take the module off and made sure there wasn’t any dust or debris in the laser shroud. The laser, camera and LED were all clean.
I’d expect the “corrugated” to be part of the problem, since the middle part is wavy and would wander in and out of focus. Non-corrugated heavy card (mat board, or the stuff they use to stiffen covers on three-ring binders) might cut better.
1 Like
Thanks again rustyssjones, I think you nailed it. I’m thinking perhaps there was a manufacturing anomaly with my laser module since the .nc files you shared indicated that I needed to add about 3.5mm of positive z travel before being in-focus. This would have seemingly put it outside the range of the calibration cut that Snapmaker uses to adjust focus given I had to add about 3mm of positive travel with that already.
That said, your files were incredibly helpful and intuitive. After getting it mostly dialed-in, I noted the z-distance above the surface and then used cardstock with the 2.5 test to fine-tune the last 0.2mm. Then I ran the test 4 file and you can see much better etching and cutting on the cardboard.
After that, I ran a file I’ve been having issues with, and you can see it doesn’t quite make it all the way through. However, that was at 100mm/min, more than three times more rapid than what I was using previously, and the cut lines are much, much tighter.
So, overall, I think you’ve set me upon the right path. I’d wish that the Snapmaker files were as robust as the ones you provided, that would have saved me a lot of headache. Finally, though, PROGRESS, with your insight and help.
Thanks again!!
1 Like
That looks much better I’m going to guess that your new test 4 was run with the corrugated running up and down vs left and right… If so then the 50mm/min was most likely in a spot where the inside cardboard was raising rapidly near the cut line. Holding the cut square in place. No?
I too was pretty disappointed in SM’s focus test, hence I made my own. I still think there’s room for improvements. I had to used a x16 magnifying glass to figure out the fine tuning.
I’m glad the files worked out for you.
Cheers!
1 Like
